Windhoek
Khomas regional education director Gerard Vries says the ever increasing inflow of people into Windhoek has placed tremendous pressure on the limited education facilities the education directorate can provide.
As a result, he said, the Khomas Region experiences major challenges in accommodating all school-age children whose parents relocate to the city for one or another reason.
Many parents are currently in limbo as to where their children will find a school for the 2016 academic year, since schools are already full, especially for Grade 1 and 8 placement.
The Grade 1 and 8 enrolments started from June 1 2015 and schools were requested to conclude their enrolments by July 31 as well as to advise parents about the outcomes of their children’s applications in August this year. Similarly, Vries said, parents were expected to confirm they accepted the offered school places for their children by September 15.
However, he said, in an effort to ensure that each Namibian child finding him or herself within the boundaries of Khomas Region at whatever particular time is accommodated in school, the ministry has constructed some primary and secondary schools over the last 20 years.
These include high schools such as Highline, Hage Geingob, CJ Brandt, Khomastura and Rocky Crest, while others such as Khomas, Hochland, Acacia and Groot-Aub have been converted from hostel or existing structures.
Primary schools include Hillside, Faith, Havana, Olof Plame, Moses Garoeb, Tobias Hainyeko, Otjomuise, Michelle Mclean, Cimbebasia, Rocky Crest, Frans Indongo and Fidel Castro.
Vries said though the construction of the said schools has enabled the directorate to create a substantial number of school spaces, many more children have kept on crossing into the Khomas Region at an unprecedentedly fast pace and in unforeseen huge volumes.
In an attempt to further mitigate the influx, Vries noted the region has established project schools over the last five years which are earmarked for expansion and transformation into permanent structure schools in the foreseeable future. Some of these schools, he says, are accommodated in temporary tents while others are in semi-permanent structures.
These project schools include Jan Mohr, Havana, Moses Garoeb, Tobias Hainyeko and Otjomuise.
According to him, the directorate is hopeful that teachers and learners accommodated in the project schools will be relocated to permanent schools within the next two to four years.
In the meantime, Vries said that the directorate of education, arts and culture is working hard on plans to replace the tents with permanent classrooms, while at the same time identify new capital projects to expand the number of schools in all constituencies.